x973) adhere to a potential level of 400-500 cars per 1000 population by the year 2010, based upon comparison with conditions in the U.S.A. In contrast, Beesley and Kain (1964 1965), using a predictive model incorporating British urban land use densities and income levels suggest a more conservative upper limit of 350 per 1000, which is slightly below the current figure for the U.S.A. Clearly, recent political uncertainties concerning the future supply and cost of fuel bring the validity of these predictions into question. Nevertheless, the already existing need for a comprehensive planning policy for shopping centre development and the probability that personal mobility will increase, albeit at a slower rate than has previously been postulated, argues strongly for predictive policies for the planning of shopping centres. The need is particularly highlighted when viewed from the perspective of earlier experience in the U.S.A. Cohen and Lewis (1967) demonstrated that in the absence of strong controls and the lack of a comprehensive planning policy at a time when personal mobility was increasing rapidly, the adjustment to the new circumstances was largely resolved by decentralisation, with considerable emphasis on the uncoordinated ideals of individual firms. This resulted in the fragmentization of shopping facilities by clustering them along heavily travelled roads rather than their development into new "downtowns" (which) may represent one of the great "missed" land use opportunities of our time (Cohen and Lewis, 1967). However, despite the attention paid by geographers to the study of shopping centre location (Davies, 1973) and consumer shopping behaviour over the past fifteen years in the respective fields of central place theory and gravity interaction models, existing know- ledge if insufficiently refined for predictive policy formation at the intra-urban scale. The limitations of existing theory indicate the need for further research into the determinants of consumer shopping behaviour. The behavioural assumptions of central place theory have been questioned in a rural (Gollege, Rushton and Clark, 1966) and urban (Clark, 1968) environment, while the successful appli- cation of gravity models to urban areas awaits further clarification of the determinants of shopping behaviour and the development of refined measures of attraction and disincentive (Jensen-Butler, 1972). Behavioural approaches A considerable amount of work has been undertaken under this heading in recent years. A number of foci of attention can be